Australia Wins The First T20, A Shocking Collapse Of Sri Lakan Batting Order

Australia is up and over again. They are continuing the sublime form they picked in the T20 World Cup. A really good and penetrating performance by the visiting side as the home side couldn’t perform the competitive cricket. David Warner and Jos Hazlewood were the heroes of the night as the cruised to victory without any trouble.

Josh Hazlewood’s fatal three-wicket over made the match almost one-sided. The remaining work was taken up by Australia’s openers and registered an early 10-wicket win over Sri Lanka in Colombo. Hazlewood has emerged as a wicket-taker and economical among T20 bowlers, taking 4-16 yesterday to silence an entire home team fan at the Premadasa Stadium.

David Warner (70 off 44 balls), was playing his first T20 International since last year’s World Cup, while Aaron Finch (61 off 40 balls) had a series in Pakistan. Both shared 134 runs for the first wicket.

The Australian captain hit four sixes, while Warner depended only on fours. After a long rain delay of the second innings, the visitors reached a modest victory target of 128 with six overs to spare. Pathum Nisanka (36 out of 31) and Charith Aslanka (38 out of 34) played well but could not convert it into big scores.

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Their 61-run partnership put on a stellar performance and Sri Lanka’s eyes were on the big score. But Hazlewood spoiled the party in a 4-16 spell. Despite being on a strong 1-100 in the opening 12th over, Sri Lanka lost their last nine wickets for the next 28 runs.

First dismissing opener Danushka Gunathilaka (26 off 15), Hazlewood caught Kusal Mendis (1) in the middle order, caught Bhanuka Rajapakse (golden duck) behind and skipper Dasun Shanaka (duck off the second ball).

The pacer now has 12 wickets at 8.91 with an economy rate of 5.35 in five T20Is against Sri Lanka this year. The Sri Lankan bowlers also could not do much, although they did not even have the scot to put pressure. Hasaranga and Chamira, who performed well in IPL, conceded 27 runs in 2 overs and 48 runs in 4 overs respectively.

Now, waiting for the second match, Sri Lanka will be keen to make a comeback against Australia. The middle order have to take responsibility for the maintenance of momentum and scoring rate.